The MLB postseason picks back up Saturday with the Divisional Series beginning for both the American League and National League.
The New York Yankees have already arrived in Tampa Bay, where they’ll take on the No. 1-seeded Rays at Tropicana Field after dominating the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series earlier this week.
Ahead of the matchup, one of the biggest storylines continues to be superstar Aaron Judge’s status after the Yankees left him off their Wild Card roster while he continues to recover from a calf injury.
Aaron Boone Gives Update on Judge
On Friday, Boone revealed that Judge will work out with the team on the field in Tampa Bay and said “we’ll see” when asked about adding him to the roster and potentially putting him in the lineup Saturday.
“We’ll see. He’ll be working out today, hit again live yesterday,” Boone said.
Aaron Boone gives an update on Aaron Judge’s status for the ALDS: “We’ll see. He’ll be working out today, hit again live yesterday.”
Boone is not sure if Judge has run the bases but knows that Judge has started running pic.twitter.com/RItnaCMlAj
— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) October 2, 2026
Kevin Cash Praises Judge
Also speaking to the media ahead of Game 1 was Rays manager Kevin Cash, who had nothing but praise for Judge, calling him “the best player in our sport.”
“I look at Aaron Judge as being the best player in our sport,” Cash said. “You know we got a unicorn in Shohei Ohtani that we don’t see it very often and then we got Judge. So it’s different. We haven’t seen that too many games with him not in it… but they have a very good lineup, and they’ve been very good without him. It’s incredibly impressive the offensive success they have had missing the best hitter in our sport.”
Tampa Bay Rays Manager Makes Aaron Judge Statement Before ALDS vs. Yankees